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New York Giants 0-5 for First Time Since 1987; Lose to Philadelphia Eagles 36-21

October 6th, 2013 at 5:38 PM By Douglas Rush

In the history of the NFL, no team has ever started a season 0-5 and rebound to make the playoffs, which is why the New York Giants were desperately trying to avoid losing to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday and avoid such a start.

But it was not meant to be for Eli Manning, Tom Coughlin and company, as the Giants lost 36-21 to their NFC East rivals and for the first time since 1987, have dropped to 0-5 to start the 2013 season.

The Giants did get off to a fast start, as Eli Manning's 49-yard pass play to Hakeem Nicks which lead to David Wilson scoring his first touchdown of the season, a five-yard touchdown run that put the team up 7-0. The crowd was into it, the fans were into it, and for the first few minutes of the game, the Giants looked like they were going to have a strong game.

On the next drive, the Eagles, lead by Michael Vick, were able to get down to the Giants' 22-yard line, but stalled, which set up a 40-yard field goal for Alex Henry and the Eagles were on the board as the Giants had a 7-3 lead.

After each team traded a couple of drives that lead to each team punting, the Eagles put together another long drive that took them into the second quarter, but the Eagles couldn't get into the end zone and Henry was on the field again for his second field goal try, this one from 27 yards out and cut the Giants lead down to one, making it 7-6.

After the Giants were forced to punt again, a 56-yard pass play from Vick to DeSean Jackson put the Eagles in Giants territory, although that pass was nearly intercepted by Trumaine McBride, but missed by about a few inches. Three plays later, LeSean McCoy plunged into the end zone for a one-yard touchdown carry and the Eagles took their first lead of the game at 13-7.

On the next drive, Giants veteran running back Brandon Jacobs fumbled the ball trying to shift the ball from one hand to the other, which landed into the lap of the Eagles defense and linebacker Mychal Kendricks, giving the Eagles the ball on the Giants 47-yard-line. The Eagles were able to convert the turnover into points on the board, as Henry connected on his third field goal of the game from 29-yard out, making it a 16-7 game.

With 1:33 left in the game, Henry kicked a fourth field goal in the game, a 36-yard try and increased the Eagles lead to 19-7, which is what the score was as the players went into the locker room at halftime. The Giants players were showered by boos from the crowd at MetLife Stadium and utterly sick to their stomach from the lack of effort in the half.

In the third quarter, the Giants were able to finally show some life on their second possession of the half, as they put together a seven-play, 84-yard drive which saw Manning throw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Rueben Randle and the Giants cut into the lead, making it 19-14. For the Eagles, they were playing the second half of the game with backup Nick Foles, as Michael Vick left with what looked like a hamstring injury suffered in the first half of the game.

After the Eagles punted again and looked a bit lost on offense under Foles, a pass interference call for 32 yards put the Giants deep inside Eagles territory and Manning found Randle again for the second time in the game, as he connected on a six-yard touchdown pass to give the Giants the lead again at 21-19.

On the next drive, Foles was able to march the Eagles offense down the field and to the Giants 23-yard-line, setting up Henry's fifth field goal of the game from 41 yards out, and the Eagles were back on top at 22-21, which is what the score was heading into the fourth quarter, which is where things got really ugly for the Giants.

Manning's pass to Jacobs was batted up into the air and intercepted by Kendricks, setting up great field position for the Eagles on the Giants own 25-yard line. On the interception, Manning was hit in the head by Trent Cole which should have been a personal foul call, but the referees somehow missed the call. On the next possession, Foles threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Brent Celek for a touchdown and the Eagles pulled ahead 29-21.

Three plays later, the Giants were trying to drive and get back into the game and Manning's pass to Victor Cruz was ripped out of his hands and intercepted by Brandon Boykin, which was Manning's second pick of the game and gave the Eagles great field position again on the Giants 38-yard line.

Three plays later, Foles threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Jackson, which was the nail in the coffin for the game and the Eagles took a commanding 36-21 lead with 8:32 left and some of the fans in MetLife Stadium started heading for the exits. Manning's third interception of the game by Cary Williams really sent the majority of the fans to the exits and sealed the Eagles victory as they got their second win of the season by knocking off their NFC East rivals on the road.

With the loss, the Giants are now 0-5 and in sole possession of last place in the NFC East and their season is quickly dwindling on them with each loss early on in the season.

Manning finished going 24-for-52 with 334 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. Manning was playing well up until the fourth quarter, but had an uncharacteristically bad four quarter. Nicks lead all receivers with nine catches for 142 yards; Randle had six catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns.

The Giants don't have a lot of time to think about the loss, as they will have to quickly turn around and get on a plane to Chicago, where they will play on Thursday Night Football at Soldier Field against the Chicago Bears.

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181 Responses to “New York Giants 0-5 for First Time Since 1987; Lose to Philadelphia Eagles 36-21”

After this game I’m not afraid of criticizing Eli anymore. I used to be, just because of what he did in 2011, but it’s been 21 games since then. If you’re an elite QB, you put your team on your back in those situations. He failed to do that many times last season, as well as this season. Some guys have been quick enough to start putting blame on him very early (TroyThorne from what I’ve seen) and it’s time to join in.

Not really all that upset. I kind of emotionally checked out on this team after the Carolina game.

However it’s really tough to put this game on the coaches. I thought the game plan on both O and D were good, and the players were fired up. This did not look at all like a team that had quit.

Sometimes it really is just execution. Jacobs fumbles on a routine run play. And Eli throws 3 picks. Not going to overcome that.

TURNING POINT: To me this game was lost on a single play. Early 4th Q, we’re driving down 21-22, Eli is under pressure, his face get’s grabbed, and he foolishly tries to deliver a ball when he should have just taken a sack. Refs missed a call no doubt. But a veteran QB isn’t supposed to do that. The Eagles were dead. The crowd was fired up, D was excited, and the offense had been in a rhythm. No need to do anything but take a sack there. After that INT it’s like the power went out and Philly got brought back to life.

This 2013 Giants team is like the bizarro Giants. Instead of mounting 4th Q comebacks we completely collapse.

Anyway tough going for Coughlin. I’ve been hard on him, but I thought they prepared the guys well today. Team really should be 2-3. But as Kurtis Blow used to say, these are the breaks.

Yeah pretty well said. This is the first game I thought they finally started to call some offensive plays that took pressure of the oline/eli. Still want to see them use Wilson creatively, but he left the game early (hope he’s OK).

Defense will again be chided by people who don’t watch the games, but the offense continues to put them in ridiculous positions. They could have played better, but the final score is really not reflecting the decent job they have done, at times.

But look, this team is just not that good. Besides the poor play, way too many stupid penalties, bad timeouts, turnovers… all the little things that make it hard to win.

Everyone seen enough? I have. This team is beyond bad……they are outright pathetic. They’re like the Keystone Kops, a bunch of bumbling fools.

It’s hard to believe professionals can play this badly. There is nothing going to change this season, which I can deal with. I only hope and pray that Coughlin and Company are gone next year. This team has totally tuned out TC et al.

well I’m ready to eat my crow of humble pie thinking the season isn’t over lol. Time to debate draft guys! I say if we end up in top 3 pick we should trade down and try to get two first round picks plus more. Teams will buy high to get Clowney or bridgewater. I think we pick up as many first rounder as possible and get the 2 best interior OL in the first and DE in the second then CB in the third. I would sign the best MLB on the FA market.

Clowney is good but not as good as everyone makes him out to be. He is big and fast but his conditioning isnt good he gets winded way to fast and has to take rests too frequently. Last year was his best year as a sophmore and is not having a good year this year. All his hype is based off of one good year and one great play and crunching hit last year. He is not the answer to the giants problems and isnt going to solve any problems for the giants as much as a linebacker or lineman would; or a new offensive coordinator

Like most people here Im of the opinion that TC needs to go, obviously. If this is in fact his last season it’s a dam shame that he’s got to go out like this though. Say what you want about him as a coach…..I don’t think anyone here can argue that he’s a good man, a class act; I feel really bad for the guy.

Will Hill (I think a lot of us had him labeled as a player) Jonathan Hankins (Excellent quickness power going to be good) JPP looks to be picking up the pieces. He looks way better. Paysinger (He needs some help, but the kid is solid)

The O-line looked better. However, they were playing the Eagles. The Giant offensive line is still a dumpster fire (Class BROVO) which means it’s being fed by petroleum products. Where the hell is Damontre Moore? Is there some NFL rule in place that says the Giants cannot play this kid? Inquiring minds would like to know……….

I’d like to say that this loss was a really bad one, but to be honest, it’s become the norm for this team. I was at the game, at there were a couple of things I noticed:

1. We got hosed by the refs on several intentional grounding and PI non-calls. Probably wouldn’t have made a difference in the end, but it was disappointing to see the receivers getting mugged very often and not getting any calls. Also, those refs had no idea what intentional grounding was.

2. I’m extremely disappointed in Eli. I’ve been one of his biggest fans, but his performance today was unacceptable. He was great through 3 quarters… and then it all fell apart. Three bad interceptions on three bad throws. He lost us this game, no doubt about it.

3. Coughlin was miserable today. He was severely out-coached, and made 3 horrible, game-altering decisions today. The first was when he accepted the holding penalty when it otherwise would have been 4th and 4 with the Eagles out of field goal range. It was idiotic to accept that penalty, and the Eagles would wind up with a field goal on that drive. His second horrible decision was to punt on the Eagles 36. Brown has the leg to make a 53 yard FG (isn’t that why we signed him?), and although he’s been bad so far, you can’t punt on the opponent’s 36. Should have been 10-0 rather than 7-3. Lastly, I couldn’t believe that he called a timeout to decide whether or not to challenge, and then lost the challenge. I don’t blame him for the challenge; the refs got that one wrong. However, calling a timeout before challenging a play is one of the stupidest decisions I’ve ever seen. Makes absolutely no sense. If you just throw the challenge flag and get it wrong, you lose one timeout. If you get it right, you lose no timeouts. To call a timeout before the challenge, however, means that even if you get it right, you lose a timeout. And if you get it wrong, you lose two timeouts. So undeniably stupid.